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Special Centre for the Study of North East India
Special Centre for the Study of North East India
Special Centre for the Study of North East India
Special Centre for the Study of North East India

Special Centre for the Study of North East India

Special Centre for the Study of North East India

 

SCSNEI is offering the following courses for the Winter semester, 2024

B.A Courses (Optional) (CREDIT 3)    Course In-charge
NE 202  Sociology of North East India     Dr. Kh. Bijoykumar Singh
NE 203  Colonialism and Culture in North East India   Dr. Manjeet Baruah
NE 205  Introduction to History of North East India, 1826-1947  Dr. Lipokmar Dzuvichu

                                        
                                                                 

M.A Courses (Optional) (CREDIT 4)    Course In-charge
NE 422  Politics of Resistance in North East India   Dr. G. Amarjit Sharma
NE 426  Sociology of Religion in North East India.  Dr. Kh. Bijoykumar Singh
NE 428  Political Ecology of North East India   Dr. G. Amarjit Sharma & Dr. Rakhee Bhattacharjee
 


Special Centre for the Study of North East India (SCSNEI) at JNU was established in the year 2018, upgraded from a Programme of research and teaching called North East India Studies Programme (NEISP). In its new form, SCSNEI aims at expanding the horizons of research and teaching on North East India, rare in the country.

 

The Special Centre is conceived with a purpose to build corpus of academic works on northeastern region of India. It also aims at holistic understanding of the region by bringing together different epistemic perspectives with strong commitment to multi-disciplinary research. While there are several researches already under taken on the region in different Schools and Centres of the university, the unique experiment initiated by SCSNEI is the ‘coming together’ of people and ideas for a better comprehension of the region.To fulfil this objective, SCSNEI initiates a collaborative exercise to run its academic programmes with the partnership of eight Schools of the university, viz. School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies; School of Social Sciences; School of International Studies; School of Environmental Sciences;  School of Arts and Aesthetics; School of Life Sciences; School of Bio Technology; and School of Computational and Integrative Sciences.SCSNEI provides a common platform to the faculty members working in the areas of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and other allied disciplines, whose works are directly or indirectly linked to the studies on the region. A further step towards fulfilling the objective is to expand the collaborative works outside the confines of JNU – withother academic and research institutions in the country and abroad.

 

This area studies programme, conceptualised under special circumstances, owns added responsibility of locating North East India in the national and broader regional frames of reference. To bring the region in the centre of national discourses, SCSNEI has taken up activities of research and teaching that will not only familiarise North East India to the young academics, but also work towards positive intervention on the region and its people with expectations for rich dividend. The Special Centre shall play the role of a catalyst towards policy intervention by developing new methods and approaches for human development and holistic growth. To fulfil these objectives, SCSNEI is committed to work closely with state institutions, corporate bodies, civil society organizations and discerning scholars.

 

SCSNEI focuses on areas of research, such as, social change, religion and statecraft, empowerment politics, regional economic growth, livelihood studies, border trade and state policies, global capital and institutions, conflict, peace and security studies, borderland studies, intercultural discourses, aesthetics and performance studies, traditional knowledge, health, bio-diversity, folk medicine, etc. Students and researchers are encouraged not only to conduct in-depth research but also simultaneously develop social commitment to judiciously apply the freshly acquired knowledge.

 

Acknowledging existing gaps between the people of the region and the rest of the country SCSNEI shall focus on programmes that will also adequately emphasize on cultural connectivity and regional awareness. New programmes will be developed to enable capacity building and self-sustenance. SCSNEI is committed to develop this Special Centre as a unique institution not only within JNU but also in the entire country – a most vibrant and committed research institute on North East India studies.

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.