The SOAS South Asia Institute in cooperation with a group of NGOs is hosting a conference on the theme of caste to be held at SOAS on the 5th September 2015. Make a statement! The ‘Out of the Shadows’ conference aims to engage people from a range of development organisations in a debate on the significance of caste to poverty and development in the contemporary world.
We have an exciting offer of a free trial to the FO Files for India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan for the period 1947-1980 Many departments, students and researchers will find this digital archive relevant and resourceful for a number of subject disciplines, including History, Politics, Development Studies, Economics, Near Middle Eastern Studies (Afghanistan), South East Asian Studies (Burma) and South Asian Studies. Access is from this link: www.archivesdirect.amdigital.co.uk/FO_India.
The NISU and SOAS South Asia Institute had organized an intimate gathering to glean the process of making a first-of-its-kind Hollywood film by Bollywood director Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The evening was made interesting with dance and song from Chopra’s films and an exclusive look at the theatrical trailer of Broken Horses. The trailer comes with Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron’s comment on the film: “Broken Horses is an artistic triumph. Beautifully
One thing should be said: the Modi government can hardly be accused of idleness. Since his coming to power last year, Mr. Modi has promised systemic changes to ameliorate the lives of India’s working poor. Not an easy task, considering that India’s informal labour accounts for 86% of total employment in non-agricultural activities and 93% if one considers all economic activities instead (NCEUS, 2008). One of the first systemic changes
During the first two weeks of February, Michael Hutt (Director of the SOAS South Asia Institute) and Matthew Gorman (Director of Development and Alumni Relations) visited Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai to introduce the new South Asia Institute to alumni, offer holders, business leaders, philanthropists and friends of SOAS, and to both longstanding and potential new partners. In each city, friends of SOAS hosted alumni gatherings at which Michael Hutt gave
We live not according to reason but fashion – Seneca. In a recent piece, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor aptly called Modi ‘a master communicator at work’ coming up with new slogans, sound-bites, photo ops in quite an unparalleled way. Prime Minister Modi certainly showed his communication skills when US President Barak Obama visited India as chief guest to India’s Republic Day Parade last January. The visit (a highly anticipated and media-crazed
In the on-going annual conference of the Indian Science Congress at the University of Mumbai, one panel that has attracted high interest in the press and in social media is entitled ‘Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit’. Presenting his paper on Ancient Indian Aircraft, Captain Anand Bodas, a retired principal of a pilot training school, asserted that Indian aeronautical sciences are 7000 years old, that ancient Indian aircraft were capable of not
2014 has been a year of commemorations and remembrances of the events of 1984. June 2014 marked the 30th anniversary of Operation Blue Star, the code name for the Indian army storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Operation Blue Star is also referred to as the second ghallughara (transl. carnage, holocaust).[1] November 2014 marked the 30th anniversary of the anti-Sikh pogroms which followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi who
On 25 November I was contacted by Monocle Radio, who wanted to hear my views on the massive cleanup of Kathmandu that took place during the run-up to that city’s hosting of the 18th SAARC summit (see http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/11/pictures-kathmandu-20m-facelift-2014112392617611.html). The interviewer asked me where the Government of Nepal might have found the $20m it is said to have spent on this project, and I think I disappointed him by saying that
Prof. Lawrence Sáez (Professor in the Political Economy of Asia at SOAS) delivered a talk on ‘The 2014 Indian elections and their impact on the region’ at Pakistan Institute of International Affairs. Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014. http://www.dawn.com/news/1146860/bjp-appeasing-non-hindutva-voters-to-broaden-support-base