JNU | RTI | Directory | Contact Us | Emergency Services | List of Holidays
-A A +A

Dams, Development and Environment: Experiences from Northeast India

Dams, Development and Environment: Experiences from Northeast India

Event End Date
Event Title
Dams, Development and Environment: Experiences from Northeast India
Event Details
<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> Seminar Notice <strong>Prof. Chandan Kumar Sharma </strong> (Tezpur University, Tezpur ) a talk on <strong>Dams, Development and Environment: Experiences from Northeast India</strong> Date : <strong>March 12, 2015 (Thursday)</strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>The development question on the northeastern region of India has been a much contested issue. The geo-political location of the region, presence of a staggering number of backward indigenous communities, a fragile ecology, etc have remained key issues in determining the development discourse in the region. Government of India (GoI) in the past was unresponsive to many popular demands for various development projects in the region citing these issues. However, since the middle of the last decade, GoI policy toward the region has seen a sudden change and it announced its development agenda for the region which lied in turning it into 'India's Future Powerhouse' by generating massive amount of hydel power by building dams on the perennial rivers of the region, especially those of the state of Arunachal Pradesh. This has generated huge public protest in the region which is based on some of their previous experiences with such projects along with the apprehension that this 'development' initiative of the government would spell disaster to the ecosystem of the rivers and the livelihood and cultural heritage of millions of people living in the riparian areas of these rivers. The fact that the region is seismically very active and ecologically fragile has further fuelled the public anxiety. This presentation seeks to provide a background to the conflict building up between the government and the communities in the riparian areas of the region centering on the building of these dams. It highlights how the latter poses to drastically change the social and demographic landscape of the region and how the state is complicit in this eventuality. <strong>Bio-Data: </strong>Chandan Kumar Sharma is Professor in the Department of Sociology, Tezpur University, Assam. He completed his M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics. He has been a Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow to the Queen's University, Belfast and Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics. He is also the Co-ordinator of the Maulana Azad Centre for Research on Northeast India at Tezpur University. His areas of interest include Identity Politics, Migration, Environment, Development and Culture

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.