̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - India

Young Indian politicians get a taste of Cambridge life

ag236 — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 11:42:53 +0000

̽��ֱ��visit to Cambridge was part of a trip to the United Kingdom organised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which aims to provide a platform for the young Indian political leaders to learn about the UK’s political landscape and the wider UK-India relationship.

Having spent a few days in London –including sitting through a Prime Minister’s Question Time session—the group arrived in Cambridge to visit the ̽��ֱ��’s Centre of South Asian Studies and to meet with various student society representatives.

At the Centre of South Asian studies, the delegation was welcomed by Dr David Washbrook, Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, who offered an overview of the ̽��ֱ��’s historical links to India.

Professor Polly O’Hanlon, a fellow of Clare College, explained how British scholarship about India evolved in the second half of the 20th century, leading to the creation in 1964 of the Centre of South Asian Studies –the first of its kind in the UK.

Dr Edward Anderson, Smuts Research Fellow in Commonwealth Studies, gave an overview of the Centre’s work, its library and archives, and its MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies.

After meeting MPhil students, the delegation was taken into the Centre of South Asian Studies’ library, where Kevin Greenbank, the Centre’s Archivist, displayed many of the Archives’ treasures. These included a panoramic photograph from the Delhi Durbar of 1911, Edwin Lutyens’ plans for New Delhi (including many for buildings that were never built) and miniature paintings from 1842.

Commenting on the visit, Dr Anderson said: "Cambridge has an extremely rich and diverse history of connections with India – a relationship that is today as important as ever. ̽��ֱ��visiting students seemed to really enjoy hearing about this shared heritage, and our students from the MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies were also able to learn a lot from the young Indian politicians".

Explaining the motivation behind the visit, Shria Gandhi, Political Officer at the UK’s High Commission in Delhi, said:

“This group represents 6 political parties across 10 Indian states. They are the next generation of Indian leaders. ̽��ֱ��idea is to expose them to UK institutions –its Parliament, businesses, media, higher education institutions—so that 15 or 20 years down the line, when they are members of parliament or ministers in the Indian government, they will want to collaborate with the UK. ̽��ֱ��idea is to promote the UK-India bilateral relation, and who better than future leaders of India as ambassadors to promote that relationship?”

Ronak Hegde, 29, from Maharashtra, and a member of the youth wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), shared his impressions of the Centre of South Asian Studies: “I am always curious to know about my past history. If anyone gives me new insights into my own background I am always grateful.”

This sentiment was echoed by Richa Singh, 29, the first elected woman President in the 128-year history of the Allahabad ̽��ֱ�� Students’ Union, and a member of the Samajwadi (Socialist) Party: “Cambridge is a very important place for us, and the Centre of South Asian Studies gives us a deeper understanding of India and its relations to the UK.”

Hasiba Amin, 26, General Secretary of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress Party, explained the importance of visiting Cambridge.

Referring to India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, she said: “I am a big Nehru fan, and Cambridge played a role in making Nehru what he was. He chose democracy. He understood the importance of criticism. Cambridge had a role to play in that.”

Leni Jadhav, 30, also a General Secretary of the NSUI, added: “We know some of the Cambridge colleges from Bollywood films, and what I’ve seen is just as beautiful. But I was very pleased to have met people who are interested in topics that are of great interest to me as an Indian. Now I’m keen to meet students, and learn about what they do, about their sports activities, about their cultural life –the things the students here do apart from studying.”

Cambridge’s track record in research and innovation was the biggest draw for Alok Kumar Singh, 28, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh party:

“I’m a biochemist, and I admire Cambridge because of the work of Nobel winner Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. Some of the greatest recent discoveries in molecular biology have happened in this university.”

A fellow member of the ABVP, 20-year-old Harikrishna Varma explained that he was most interested in understanding the difference between student politics in both countries:

“I want to know how political dynamics play out in ̽��ֱ�� life. ̽��ֱ��way they work here seems to be better for academic life. In Indian party politics there is more rhetoric and less detail. Here there is more space for nuanced opinions.”

Abhishek Gupta, 23, of the student wing of the Aam Aadmi Party, said: “When you hear the name of Cambridge, you think about very high levels in education. We know of the high standards of education set by Cambridge, and we need more universities like this in India.”

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has enjoyed a close relationship with India for over 150 years. From the mid-19th century, when the first students from India arrived in Cambridge, scholarship and lasting friendship have been the foundation of academic partnership. Three Indian Prime Ministers were educated at Cambridge, and the ̽��ֱ�� is now home to distinguished academics from India across all fields of the arts, humanities, social, physical, biological and medical sciences.

In March 2017, to mark the anniversary of India’s independence, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s museums will launch a year-long programme of India-focused exhibitions and events.

A delegation of 12 Indian student politicians affiliated to various political parties visited Cambridge on 1 December to gain a greater understanding of links between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and India

Cambridge has an extremely rich and diverse history of connections with India – a relationship that is today as important as ever.

Dr Edward Anderson

Kevin Greenbank shows members of the Indian student delegation a panoramic photograph of the 1911 Delhi Durbar

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Professor Sir Christopher Bayly (1945-2015)

pbh25 — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 09:32:15 +0000

Professor Sir Christopher Bayly, described as the single most influential figure in the field of modern Indian history, has died in Chicago aged 69.

He was world-renowned for his enormous contributions to the Centre of South Asian Studies in Cambridge and to his subject.

He held many positions during his time at Cambridge including being the Centre’s Director, President of St Catharine’s College, and Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History in the Faculty of History.

He also held positions outside of Cambridge including being the Vivekananda Professor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Chicago. It was on Sunday while in Chicago, during one of his annual Spring visits, that he died of a suspected heart attack.

Professor Bayly was a member of the Centre of South Asian Studies for more than 45 years having arrived in Cambridge from Oxford in 1969 where he had completed his doctorate under the supervision of Jack Gallagher.

Although he retired last year from the Directorship of the Centre he still maintained a base there and Professor Joya Chatterji, the current Director, said her predecessor was a “crucial point of continuity” in its history.

Professor Chatterji said: “It is not an exaggeration to say that Chris has been the single most influential figure in the field of modern Indian history. Every one of his monographs, from his first book on Allahabad in 1975 to his last book on Liberalism in 2012, broke new ground, whether in political, social and economic, or latterly intellectual history."

She added that Professor Bayly completely transformed people’s understanding of the 18th and 19th centuries in a series of publications, above all Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars (1983) which many regard as his magnum opus.

Having established his reputation as a social and economic historian of outstanding originality, he then went on to take up new challenges. Empire and Information (1996) uncovered the worlds of Indian spies, runners and political secretaries who were recruited by the British to secure information about their subjects, and the social and intellectual origins of these informants.

Increasingly drawn to think about ‘world historical’ comparisons and connections he wrote first Imperial Meridian in 1989, and then a stunning new analysis of ̽��ֱ��Birth of the Modern World (2004), which transformed the understanding of the history of modernity itself, and drew attention to its richly complex, overlapping global roots.

A pair of books followed in quick succession, co-authored with Tim Harper, on the social transformations wrought by the Second World War in Asia. He would later write about the intellectual history of Indian liberalism.

Describing his work Professor Chatterji said: “His prodigious productivity, the stunning range of his scholarship, and his talent for thinking comparatively, and in a connected way, about a range of historical questions, established the reputation for which he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2004 and received a knighthood in 2007.

“Many will remember Chris as an inspiring supervisor, as a colleague and friend, as a longstanding member of the Centre’s Committee of Management and above all as Director of this Centre.”

Reflecting on his legacy Professor Chatterji added that during his Directorship he oversaw the Centre’s move from its historic premises in Laundress Lane to the Alison Richard Building and launched the MPhil in South Asian Studies.

Professor Chatterji added: “No less significantly, he drew the study of South East Asia squarely into the Centre’s remit.

“Those who knew him have each, in their own way, learnt immeasurably from Chris, not only by reading his work, but by working with and alongside him as a supervisor and colleague. Our thoughts are with his wife Susan, his family, and his students past and present, who today feel bereft.”

Dame Jean Thomas, Master of St Catharine’s College, said that many people had paid tribute to Professor Bayly, adding: “It is clear that he was held in high esteem not only in Cambridge and St Catharine's, but around the world. We have lost a friend and valued colleague, and he will be sorely missed. We extend our deepest sympathy to Susan and his family.”

Friends and colleagues pay tribute to world-renowned expert.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that Chris has been the single most influential figure in the field of modern Indian history."

Professor Joya Chatterji

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Nehru and today's India

th288 — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 16:13:44 +0000

̽��ֱ��event brought together opinion leaders in global business, politics, academia, media and the arts from India and internationally.

They considered Nehru’s contribution in policymaking, institutional and scientific infrastructure and international affairs, assessing his impact in his time and his legacy in contemporary India.

Dr Karan Singh, Rajya Sabha MP (pictured with the Vice-Chancellor), was the Chief Guest and inaugurated the proceedings by delivering the opening plenary.

Speaking to a capacity audience at the India Habitat Centre, Dr Singh described his interactions with Nehru during the latter’s early years as Prime Minister, when the country was still finding its feet after independence.

Commenting on the recent elections in Delhi, Dr Singh expressed his delight that the principles of democracy in India so firmly established by Nehru were alive and well “because they have proven the vibrancy and power of our democracy."

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, spoke of the commitment of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, which currently has over 300 active research links with India, to working with and within India.

Through six dynamic panel discussions titled “Economy and Development”; “Religion and Democracy”; “Nehru’s Image”; “Writing Nehru”; “Founding and Building India”; and “Internationalism” the symposium explored a variety of areas, in each of which the role of the India of Jawaharlal Nehru’s years remains both foundational and controversial.

Discussions ranged well beyond questions of the domestic state and policies to consider India’s international role over the last fifty years since Nehru’s death.

On the opening Economy and Development panel, which was broadcast by the popular television network NDTV, former Planning Commission member Arun Maira; Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru ̽��ֱ�� Jayati Ghosh; former Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh; Professor of History at Harvard ̽��ֱ�� Sugata Bose; Chairman of DCM Engineering Dr Vinay Bharat Ram; and noted economist Professor Surjit Bhalla, looked back at the Planning Commission as a creation of Nehru, and assessed NITI Aayog, India’s new policy think-tank to advise the central and state governments, in the context of Nehruvian planning.

In the second panel on Religion and Democracy, which was also broadcast by NDTV, political theorist and Labour Party Peer Bhikhu Parekh; Rajeev Bhargava, Professor of Political Studies with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Naman Ahuja, Professor of Indian art history at Jawaharlal Nehru ̽��ֱ��, Arif Mohammad Khan, former Uttar Pradesh State minister, and senior journalist Swapan Dasgupta evaluated Nehru’s views on organised religion, and religious campaigning and politics.

Subsequent panels included speakers like historian and writer Patrick French; eminent historians Professors Romila Thapar and Christopher Bayly; jurist and former Attorney-General of India Soli Sorabjee; Lok Sabha MP and former Minister of State Dr Shashi Tharoor; former Ambassador and Foreign Secretary Salman Haider; political campaign advisor Dilip Cherian; Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka ̽��ֱ�� Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee; Director of the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum Tasneem Zakaria Mehta; and former Union Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid.

̽��ֱ��conference ended with a reception and dinner at the Oberoi Hotel hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, which was attended by the panellists from the day’s proceedings and guests including CK Birla, Chairman of the of the CK Birla Group; Meira Kumar, Former Speaker of the Lok Sabha; and Nand Khemka, Chairman of the Sun Group, amongst others.

̽��ֱ��joint Cambridge convenors of Nehru and Today’s India, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Strategy Dr Jennifer Barnes, and Dr Shruti Kapila, Lecturer at the Faculty of History, highlighted how by bringing leading figures from India and across the world to make a measured judgement on Nehru’s legacy, the event helped frame and lead discussions on new policies, perspectives and ideas that are shaping India’s future and engagement with the global order.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge hosted 'Nehru and Today’s India', a major international symposium, in New Delhi last week to assess and mark the legacy of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister and Cambridge alumnus, in the year of his 125th birth anniversary.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page. For image rights, please see the credits associated with each individual image.

Yes

Parliamentary Democracy in India

th288 — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:20:57 +0000

Smt. Meira Kumar, Honourable Speaker of the Lok Sabha, whose son is currently studying for a PhD in History of Art at the ̽��ֱ��, had responded to an invitation to visit from the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, whom she met in Delhi last year and again last month.

An Indian politician and a five-time Member of Parliament, Meira Kumar was elected unopposed as the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha on 3 June 2009. A lawyer and a former diplomat, she served as a Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of Manmohan Singh's Congress-led Government between 2004 and 2009.

At the Centre of South Asian Studies she met students and was shown some highlights from the Centre’s extensive archive of Indian private papers, manuscripts, photographs, letters and drawings.

She then spoke to a packed lecture theatre on the Sidgwick Site on the theme of ‘Parliamentary Democracy in India’.

“For more than four years I have been the Speaker of the Lok Sabha,” she said, “the House that represents one fifth of humanity, more than 1.2 billion people.

“I find Cambridge very familiar to the heat and dust of the electoral politics back home, and you would probably ask me how. Cambridge represents an intellectual vigour, ferocity, debates, discussions and discovery that aim to change the world for the better. Indian politics does the same. It embraces the dreams and aspirations of its people. It sends people’s representatives to Parliament so that they can change their lives for the better.”

In recalling her early life – she was born in 1945 - as the daughter of “an anti-colonial crusader” who became Deputy Prime Minister post-independence, she remembered how her home was an open house visited by men “with the distinct aura of freedom fighters. Pandit Nehru would smile and offer me cakes whenever my parents took me to his house. I now realise how fortunate I was to be growing up in such proximity to greatness. History was being scripted and, though a child, I was a witness to it. In the wake of independence, India was charting a new course for itself. All these men and women were engaged in laying a strong foundation for democracy in our land.”

She celebrated and discussed that democracy. “I wonder if any of you have seen our elections, especially in the interiors of rural India. During these elections we create what I call the largest level playing field in the world. Such is the magic of Indian democracy. In the last general elections nearly 60% of 700 million plus eligible voters voted with over a million Electronic Voting Machines to send 543 MPs to Lok Sabha. ̽��ֱ��voter turnout was more than the combined estimated population of the UK, Canada and the USA.”

She likened the often heated exchanges over which she presides in the Parliament building in Delhi to an ocean at high tide. “One has to patiently wait for it to calm down and calm down it does. Once the turbulence has subsided we skip lunch and sit late into the night to finish the pending work.

“ ̽��ֱ��discussions, punctuated with wit and repartee, are well researched and of a very high level. Our House functions in 22 languages with simultaneous interpretations in Hindi and English. Members fight vehemently in the House and have sweets together in the Central Hall. In whatever they do or don’t do, they reflect the collective will of the people of India.”

Her well-received speech was followed by a suitably spontaneous and lively question and answer session in which she provided an engaging insight into the nuances of running the Lok Sabha.

̽��ֱ��Speaker of the Lower House of the Parliament of India, the largest functioning democracy in the world, visited Cambridge yesterday.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes