Studying the dynamism of today’s India

The Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) at the Universität Göttingen is engaging researchers in the humanities, economics and social sciences with the dynamic social, political and economic developments of modern India.

Infosys Media Centre in Electronic City, Bangalore, Photo: (cc) flickr user RAmit AKA proxygeek from Mysore, India

“In the medium term, CeMIS is to be one of the leading international institutions for contemporary research on India,” said University President Kurt von Figura. “As a competence center for today’s India, activities are expected to be developed in research, training, policymaking and public information.”

An important part of the center will be its cooperation with selected Indian universities and research institutions. “Through its thematic and interdisciplinary approach, CeMIS significantly advances the work of existing Indian centers in Germany and Europe. This enables a fruitful cooperation with academics around the world,” explains Raghunath Shevgaonkar, vice chancellor of the Göttingen partner university in India, the University of Pune.

The state of Lower Saxony will also support CeMIS in the coming year with a grant of 5-million Euros. According to State Secretary for Lower Saxony's Ministry for Science and Culture, Josef Langer, “CeMIS and the support of its focus on Asia is a great asset to the Universität Gottingen. Interdisciplinary regional centers are the most productive ways to combine competences of regional research.”

Institutional cooperation & new professorships

The construction of CeMIS and its new center for East Asian Studies will focus research on a long-term basis. In particular, this includes close cooperation with institutional partners like the Göttingen-based Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and the Courant Research Centre’s work on poverty, equity and growth in developing countries, built through the Universität Göttingen’s Excellence Initiative.

Traffic remains a major urban problem like here in Hyderabad, Photo: (cc) flickr user the_unnamable CeMIS will eventually see six new professorships at the University of Göttingen. Since July 2009, Ravi Ahuja has served as chair of the Modern History Department and the center’s executive director. The chair of Development Economics has been filled since October by Ashok Rai. Anthropologist Kim Gutschow will assume the chairmanship of the Department of Anthropology and Public Health with a regional focus on South Asia. The religious studies scholar Rupa Viswanath is to become chair of the Department of Indian Religions. Additionally, professorships will be named for the Departments of Society and Culture of Modern India as well as State and Democracy in Modern India.

New bachelor and master’s program

The newly designed bachelor and master’s program begun this winter semester will eventually include an international PhD program, currently in the planning stages. Both programs consist of interdisciplinary events offered by CeMIS and guest lecturers from around the world, as well as the university’s own academics from philosophy, social sciences and economics.

The Bachelor in Interdisciplinary Indian Studies brings together regional studies with economic, anthropological, political and historical perspectives on modern India. The English-language Master in Modern Indian Studies offers students from around the world intensive coursework in development, culture and society of India in a unique international program. Students working on their bachelor will have the opportunity to study in India for a semester, while staying for a semester at an Indian university is an integral part of the master’s program.

To further promote the exchange of academics and students, the Universität Göttingen has established numerous agreements with leading universities and research departments throughout India, among them with the renowned School of Social Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and the University of Delhi, to which the Delhi School of Economics belongs.

The renowned University of Pune established in 1949, Photo: (cc) flickr user K.Shreesh Altogether, there are currently 25 cooperative projects between Indian partners and the Universität Göttingen, in which more than 50 Göttingen professors are involved. Additional projects are in the conception stage, among them an international collaborative research center and two international graduate schools. The number of students from Göttingen studying in India has risen from just four in 2008 to twenty in 2010. The number of Indian students in Göttingen has risen from 45 in 2007 to 70 today. Additionally, 70 Indian scholars are conducting research in Göttingen, a number likely only to increase.