Latest SASNET News


Successful results from SASNET supported research project in Sikkim

On Tuesday 22 May 2012, Assistant Professor Anamika Barua from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, and her Swedish research partner Associate Professor Pernille Gooch, Division of Human Ecology, Lund University, made a courtesy visit to SASNET’s office in Lund (photo). They came to report on the successful results from their joint research project on ”Water, Climate Change and Rural Livelihood: Assessing Socio Economic Vulnerability and Potential Adaptive strategies in Sikkim, India”. This project was initiated by a planning grant from SASNET in 2009 (more information), but later received substantial funding from Sida/SAREC’s Developing Country Research Council for an extended project covering the whole eastern Himalayan region of India. The initial SASNET funding was however used for a preliminary pilot field study in collaboration with Sikkim University. More information about the research project.
The findings of the study will now be presented in the upcoming ISEE 2012 Conference – Ecological Economics and Rio+20: Challenges and Contributions for a Green Economy– to be held from 16th to 19th June 2012, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More information abot the ISEE 2012 conference. 


Success for SASNET India Evening in Lund with seminar on Caste Identity, and Sarod/Tabla concert

On Wednesday 16 May 2012, an evening programme devoted to Indian society and culture was held in Lund. The successful event was jointly organised by SASNET/Lund University and Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund (ABF) Lund, and was free of charge. It drew a full house.  
The programme started at 6 P.M. with a lecture by Professor G K Karanth on ”Caste ‘Pride’ and Caste ‘Prejudice’: Personal Reflections”. During the academic year 2011/12 Prof. Karanth has been the ICCR India Chair Professor at Lund University hosted by SASNET and the Department of Sociology. In his presentation, he discussed issues related to Indian caste identities, based on his own personal experiences as having been born and brought up in a family with a caste identity of its own. 
The lecture was followed by an appreciated performance by the new India Choir of Lund (Indiska Kören i Lund), led by Bubu Munshi Eklund and Thomas Wiehe, and then came the cultural highlight of the evening – a classical North Indian music concert by young talented Sarod player Somabanti Basu from Kolkata, being accompanied by her husband Suman Sarkar on Tabla, offering a woderful concert programme, higly appreciated by the audience.
More information about the SASNET/ABF India Evening.  


Young scholars invited to propose suggestions for the fourth Falsterbo conference on South Asia for young scholars

In the summer 2013, the Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET), the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS),  and the Nordic Centre in India (NCI)  are planning to jointly organize the fourth Nordic Conference on South Asian Studies for Young Scholars to be held at Falsterbo kursgård in Höllviken (Sweden).
The main objective of the conference is to gather doctoral candidates, post-doctoral researchers, and other young scholars who are affliated to universities in the Nordic countries (including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) and focus on South Asia in their research. Since 2009 the conference has been successfully organized by SASNET and in 2011 it was carried out in collaboration with NIAS.
In order to customize the 2013 conference to current research interests and needs, the organisers now invite young scholars doing research on or having interest in the South Asian region to submit suggestions on what they consider important to address during this conference. The suggestions can be freely formulated and will be used as input for the conference planners.
Please send your suggestions to Julia Velkova (Julia.Velkova@sasnet.lu.se) by June 15, 2012, at the latest.


Annika Härenstam speaker at Go:India-SASNET Brown Bag seminar in Gothenburg

0n 29 May 2012, 12.00 – 13.00 the second Go:India & SASNET Brown Bag seminar will be held in Gothenburg. Venue: The Glass House (Glashuset), Chalmersgatan 4, Göteborg (the Inner Court Yard, between the School of Photography and the Valand School of Fine Arts).
The seminar will feature Annika Härenstam, Professor in Work Science at the Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg. Prof. Härenstam will speak on ”Gender, leadership and health promotion in working life”. She will present the recent cooperation formed with researchers from India. The network – SIGN – Sweden-India Gender Network is a network which aims to link researchers and organizations in India and Sweden, in order to share knowledge on Gender, Work, OSH (Occupational Health and Safety) and Environment in both countries for long-term collaboration. The network has recently received a grant of three million SEK from SIDA and is led by Annika Härenstam and Birgitta Jordansson from the department of Sociology and Work Science. 
All are welcome! Please send an e-mail to sigridur.beck@hum.gu.se as soon as possible to place your order for a lunch baguette at the seminar. Also let us know if you have any dietary restrictions (vegetarian or non-vegetarian). 
Read more about this seminar.
Read more about the previous Go:India & SASNET Brown Bag Seminar with Professor G K Karanth.


Dipak Malik holds SASNET seminar on the Maoist Movement in India

Professor Dipak Malik, Director for the Gandhian Institute of Studies in Varanasi, India, holds a SASNET lecture on ”Indian Naxalism Today” on Tuesday 29 May 2012, 15.15–17.00. Prof. Malik is currently on a tour to Finland and Sweden (on invitation by the Nordic Centre in India consortium) and comes to visit Lund because of his close connection to SASNET, being a member of SASNET’s South Asian Reference Group. Venue for the seminar: Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, conference room, Scheelevägen 15 D, Lund.

The reenergized Maoist movement in India is often referred to as Naxalism because of its beginning in late 1960s emanating from a small hamlet of the northern part of the state of West Bengal. Naxalbari has in recent years again emerged as a potential force of course in India, though within a different context. Maoism today poses a vital question that needs a perspective from the world of social sciences. 
In his presentation, Prof. Malik focuses on its strong impact even on districs near to Varanasi in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh state. Many people in India, including a section in the government are dismissive about it as being merely a law and order question. Others however show an understanding of the problems, they find deep maladies in the Indian society and the current development path, which leads to an insurrectionary mode of protest. It should be noted that these deep rooted maladies in the world of Indian peasantry were described already in the 1950s by Gandhians like Vinoba Bhave, albeit as an aftermath of the Telengana peasant revolt.


Lars Eklund report from Kristianstad University

On Monday 23 April 2012, SASNET’s deputy director Lars Eklund visited Kristianstad University in order to meet some of the researchers and staff working on South Asia related collaboration projects. A meeting was kindly organised by Associate Professor Kerstin Samarasinghe from the School of Health and Society, and Lise-Lotte Nilsson, Director of International Relations, Kristianstad University. Associate Professor Ann-Sofi Rehnstam Holm, and Associate Professor Torvald Olsson from the School of Education and Environment, both of them strongly involved in India related research, participated. Lars also met the university Vice Rector Lena Persson, and Dr. Christer Ohlin, in charge of Special Education at the School of Education and Environment.
The university has had a long-standing collaboration with Sri Lanka, not the least due to Dr. Kerstin Samarasinghe’s efforts over the years, with Linnaeus Palme exchange programmes  first with the Open University in Colombo, and now with Sri Jayawardenepura University. The collaboration with Sri Lanka got a boost when a high-level delegation from Kristianstad University, led by the Vice Chancellor Lars Carlsson, and Vice Rector Lena Persson, led a delegation to the country in February 2012. It was a fruitful visit, resulting in both a number of collaboration agreements, and plans for a new triangular collaborative Masters programme in Geriatric Nursing between Kristianstad University, Open University and Chiang Mai University in Thailand. 
Read Lars report from the visit to Kristianstad University.


Join SASNET's updated researchers database!

As part of the technical development of the SASNET website we have now upgraded our Researchers Database.
The database was initially created in 2001 with the goal to make it easier to identify Nordic scholars who do research in various areas related to South Asia – from humanities to natural sciences, thus hoping to enhance collaborations, exchanges and networking among researchers. The database has now been upgraded and allows the researchers themselves to enter and manage the information about their research. It also has an improved search engine that allows for searching in various ways – either by entering search keyword(s) or by browsing the researchers filtered by their country of interest, area of research or university. 

Anyone who is doing research or collaboration with South Asia and is affiliated to a Nordic university is welcome to register and help us develop further the database, thus enabling collaborations and future projects of interest for both Nordic and South Asian scholars.
If you are not already present in the database, you can join by creating your profile here or browse the Researchers Database.

 


Growth Analysis seminar on recruitment of Indian students to Sweden

Andreas Scheutz (top right) presents the descrease of Indian applicants to Higher Educational Institutions in Sweden after the introduction of fees. 

On 25 April 2012, the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis (Tillväxtanalys) organised a seminar on ”Student recruitment in India – regions, collaborations and advantages for Sweden”. The seminar took place in Gothenburg and SASNET was represented at the meeting through the participation of Julia Velkova. Present in the seminar were also representatives from Jönköping University, University of Gothenburg, University of Borås, Chalmers University of Technology, Skövde University, and Halmstad University. The seminar was based on a recent Growth Analysis report that looks into the possibilities for Swedish universities to develop further their processes of internationalisation and attract more Indian students to study in Sweden after the introduction of fees for studying at higher education insitutions. Read the report.
The seminar was mainly led by Andreas Muranyi Scheutz, representative of Growth Analysis in New Delhi, India who discussed various issues, strategies and Swedish organisations represented in India that could assist Swedish universities in attracting Indian students. Andreas Scheutz' presentation was complemented by input from Andreas Larsson, Growth Analysis Stockholm and Anna Liberg from Exportrådet. 
After the seminar in Gothenburg, an identical seminar was held in Stockholm on 25 April 2012. 
Growth Analysis is a cross-border organisation with head office in the city of Östersund in Sweden, but activities are also conducted in Stockholm, Brasilia, Brussels, New Delhi, Beijing, Tokyo, and Washington D.C.


SASNET Brown Bag seminar on Inland Fisheries in Bangladesh and India

Associate Professor Alia Ahmad from the Department of Economics, Lund University, held a SASNET Brown Bag lunch seminar lecture on Thursday 10 May 2012, 12.30–13.30, at Lunds konsthall, Mårtenstorget 3, Lund. Her presentation was entitled ”Community Management of Inland Fisheries in Bangladesh and India”, and was based on results of a joint research project in which she has been involved in recent years.  See the poster for the seminar.
By coincidence her book summarizing the research results was published by Mullick Brothers, Dhaka, the same week as Dr. Ahmad held her SASNET lecture.
The book has been co-written by Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi, Amrita School of Business in Bangalore; and Iftekharul Haque, lecturer at BRAC University in Dhaka, currently on leave for higher studies in University of Guelph, Canada. 

The study was initially supported by a planning grant from SASNET and later on sponsored by Sida and the Swedish Research Council. Organisations from three countries have been involved – Lund University, Sweden; Gujarat Institute of Development Research, India; and WorldFish Center, Bangladesh. The project addressed two major research issues: community management of inland fisheries for poverty alleviation, and the role of external agents in promoting user-based community organisations. The case studies are the community based Fisheries Management (CBFM) in Bangladesh, and the Cooperative Fisheries  Management of TAWA Reservoir in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.
The interdisciplinary South Asia seminars were introduced by SASNET a year ago, and from 2012 they are organised in collaboration with Arbetarnas Bildningsförbund (ABF) Lund, and Lunds konsthall.
More information about previous Brown Bag seminars.


Success for first Go:India - SASNET Brown Bag seminar in Gothenburg

On Tuesday 17 April 2012, the first Brown Bag lunch seminar with focus on contemporary India was held in Gothenburg. It was a great success. Speaker at the seminar was Professor Gopal Karanth who is ICCR India Chair Professor at Lund University during the academic year 2011/12. Prof. Karanth talked about ”Looking back and looking forward. Class, Caste and Economic Change in Contemporary Rural India” to an engaged audience of researchers and students from various fields. 
Read more and see photos from the event.
The seminar was jointly organised by the University of Gothenburg project Go:India and SASNET, and follows the model of the successful SASNET Brown Bag seminar series that has been taking place in Lund for three semesters now. 

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