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CSLG FOUNDING MOMENTS

CSLG FOUNDING MOMENTS

 

 

Founded in 2001, as a response to the need for an interdisciplinary understanding of issues related to the study of law and governance, CSLG owes much to the group of people who worked extremely hard to defend the idea of the Centre and build a creative institution. For this a great deal of credit must be scripted to the founding Director of the Centre, Professor Kuldeep Mathur.  Initially, five faculty members were recruited, with Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta (of the Centre of Philosophy, JNU) holding a concurrent appointment at the Centre. This team initiated a Doctoral Programme of Study, and a teaching programme comprising of pre-doctoral course modules. It also held a series of wide-ranging conversations, with colleagues across the University, as it designed an M.Phil. programme, and evolved a set of innovative courses.

 

 

Looking back on the first decade of the Centre’s existence, the faculty acknowledges the contributions of its founder-Director, Professor Kuldeep Mathur, and other colleagues, Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta (currently President, Centre for Policy Research); Professor Nandini Sundar (now at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics); Dr. Ram Singh (now at the Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics); Dr. Navroz K. Dubash (now at the Centre for Policy Research) and Dr. Jennifer Jalal (now in Canada).

 

 

Kuldeep Mathur, Professor of Political Science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, was the first Academic Director of, and Concurrent Professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance from 2000–03. He was also Rector of the University (1993–94) and Director of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (1994–97). His research interests encompass Public Policy Processes, Plans and Implementation, Bureaucracy, Administration and Decentralization. His most recent publications are Public Policy and Politics in India: How Institutions Matter (Oxford University Press, 2013), Panchayati Raj (Oxford India Short Introduction, 2013), and From Government to Governance: A Brief Survey of Indian Experience (National Book Trust, 2008).

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.